Review of Godbreathed, by Zack Hunt

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Godbreathed

What It Really Means for the Bible to be Divinely Inspired

by Zack Hunt

Herald Press, 2023. 188 pages.
Review written May 30, 2023, from my own copy purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

Godbreathed is a book about inspiration and what that means when we’re talking about the Bible, but also what it means when we’re talking about ourselves.

Zack Hunt was brought up, as I was, revering the Bible and believing in its inerrancy. But he shows in this book what’s wrong with that and how Christians who worship the Bible end up worshiping their own interpretation of it.

Here are some thoughts I marked from the first chapter:

When we transform the Bible into the divine, or more accurately our interpretation of the Bible into “a biblical worldview,” we begin to focus on the story we think it tells, rather than the story we are being invited into. When we conclude we have the Bible figured out, we end up telling others where they belong instead of trying to figure out our own place within the story of the people of God. We begin to tell a new story of our own creation and we have become very bad storytellers. We tell stories about exclusion and damnation, oppression and misogyny, of condemnation of the poor and scapegoating the stranger, and we do it all in the name of God.

When we put bad stories in the mouth of God, we smother what the Hebrew Bible calls the ruach of God, the very breath of God — that is to say, the Spirit herself from blowing how and where she will and to and through whom she will. This sort of idolatry kills, sometimes physically, but always spiritually. It should come as no surprise then to see the Bible lose not just its place of authority in modern life, but also its relevance or appeal to anyone not already warming a pew on Sunday morning. After all, who would want to be part of a story that crushes your spirit with constant judgment and damnation?

But this is not a book primarily about tearing down beliefs. It’s also a look at how the Spirit moves in the living church today.

It is from this biblical rebirth that we can begin to reimagine divine inspiration not as a form of heavenly dictation, but a Spirit-infused, wholly saturated way of life that begets more life. This is the indwelling of the spirit in our lives, this inspiration, literally the in-Spirit-ing of our very being. Or as the Bible calls it, being godbreathed (2 Timothy 3:16).

This is by no means a book about throwing out the Bible. But the author looks at the Bible as a godbreathed book written by humans in specific places and times. This is an uplifting book challenging but also helping the reader to be moved by the Bible to live a life of love.

I can’t say it enough: you are godbreathed. You. The one reading these words right now. God breathed you into existence and wants you to find your story within the story of faith that has already been told and is being told all around you. This is the calling of all godbreathed things, whether that be the written word or flesh and bone — to be godbreathed, to be filled with the Spirit of God, to be filled with love and wonder and share that love and wonder with the rest of the world just as God first shared it with us. We cannot make any claim to believing the Bible is godbreathed if that belief in a godbreathed word doesn’t lead us to love our godbreathed neighbors just as God first loved us.

zackhunt.net
heraldpress.com

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Review of Everybody Wins, by James Wallis

Creativity, History, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 2

Everybody Wins

Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made

by James Wallis

Aconyte Books, 2022. 221 pages.
Review written May 4, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

I enjoyed this book so much! It looks at the recent history of the rise in popularity of tabletop games through the lens of the German award Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), through its first 44 years of selecting winners.

The reason I loved this so much was that I lived in Germany from 1996 to 2006. At the time, before I’d even heard the term “Eurogames,” I discovered awesome games at the local stores (not even specialty stores, just the local Aldi), and thought a great way to practice German was to buy games and translate them. Eventually, I learned I could download translations from the internet, but I had fun puzzling out how to play the games and delighted in their cool wooden pieces. The games were fun to look at and to touch and to play. My theory at the time was that because the German games listed the designer on the box, you’re going to get better games. It’s just like books — series books that don’t list the actual author on the cover aren’t as good as books that do list the author. Same with games. Now I also argue that awards help things improve. As the Newbery Medal made American children’s books better, so the Spiel des Jahres has helped German games improve. I also loved reading this book and discovering games with interesting new mechanics and nicely calibrated combinations of strategy and luck.

In this big and beautiful oversize book, the author dedicates two spreads to each Spiel des Jahres winner from 1979 to 2022. He also lists other nominated games and eventually the Kennerspiel and Kinderspiel winners. He tells if the game was a worthy winner and if it’s still available today. And talks about trends and new innovations and all kinds of fascinating stuff. There are also chapters grouping different eras. It turns out that the author called 1996 to 2004 the “Golden Age” — which is exactly when I lived in Germany. I own most of the winners from that time period and lots of runners up.

Here’s what the author says this book is about, not actually a history of the Spiel des Jahres:

Instead, the book’s focus is about the games themselves — the winners and, in some cases, the runners-up and also-rans — and uses them as a lens thrugh which to look at the ways in which games, games culture and the games industry have changed over the last five decades. It looks at how tastes have evolved, how German game design (not unlike superb German engineering) became a worldwide trend, and how our understanding of the way games work has led to a renaissance in new designs and new ways of making and playing games.

I have only one complaint about this wonderful book — the sidebars are written in tiny white letters on colored backgrounds, and some of those colors made it impossible for me to read the words, even with a magnifying class. The printing may have been a little fuzzy, too. I could read the ones with lots of contrast, but not so much for the gold background (which was in the Golden Age chapter). This annoyed me, because I was so fascinated with the book, I wanted to read every single word. So it took a high level of frustration before I gave up and stopped reading the golden-colored sidebars.

But apart from that, I love Eurogames. I’ve been fascinated with the Spiel des Jahres since 1996. So this book was a complete delight to read. If you enjoy board games, I highly recommend it. And, yes, I’m ordering some new games based on this book. And pulled out some old games to show my gaming group.

aconytebooks.com

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Review of A Rhythm of Prayer, edited by Sarah Bessey

Christian, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Rhythm of Prayer

A Collection of Meditations for Renewal

edited by Sarah Bessey

Convergent, 2021. 146 pages.
Review written March 7, 2023, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com.
Starred Review

A Rhythm of Prayer is a book of prayers and meditations about prayer from a stellar group of Christian writers — I found some new books to buy from the credits after some of the selections.

This little book gave me something to think about each morning as I read and prayed a selection, and usually this included something I hadn’t thought of before in that way.

In her Introduction, Sarah Bessey says she thinks of this book as calling you into a prayer circle.

When I first began to envision this book about prayer, I knew right away what I didn’t want to give you: a nice and tidy new set of prayers to co-opt for your own. Nope, what I wanted was equal parts example and invitation, permission and challenge, to acknowledge the heaviness of our grief and at the same time broaden our hope.

Frankly, I love to pray, and I think the prayers of people like us — however we show up to these pages — matter. Not in spite of scripture but because of it. Not in spite of Church but because of her. Not in spite of our questions and doubts but because of them. Not in spite of our grief and our longing, our yearning for justice and our anger, but because of them.

So no, the point of this is not to give you prayers to pray but to show you: you still get to pray. Prayer is still for you. You still get to cry out to God, you still get to yell, weep, praise, and sit in the silence until you sink down into the Love of God that has always been holding you whether you knew it or not.

This book will give you things to think about, things to meditate on, things to contemplate, and yes, things to pray. And it will also inspire you to do those things on your own.

I’m thinking about prayer often lately, because I recently finished writing a book about prayer, using patterns from the book of Psalms. (I’m still seeking a publisher for that book.) This book fit beautifully with all that I’m thinking about, modeling opening your heart to God in prayer.

sarahbessey.com

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Review of Spare, by Prince Harry

Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Spare

by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
read by the author

Books on Tape, 2023. 15 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written April 15, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve never been much of a celebrity-watcher, but I did watch Diana’s funeral so many years ago, and along with so many others, my heart went out to Harry, losing his mother far too soon. When he wrote a book, telling his story his own way rather than through an intermediary, I wanted to hear it, wanted to hear that his heart had healed.

And yes, this is a story of healing.

Though first, it’s a story of pain. It was heart-wrenching to hear how many years went by before he stopped believing that his mother had simply staged her own death and built a life for herself elsewhere and would one day call for him.

There are stories of romances with good people who couldn’t hold up to the horrendous persistent invasive attention of the press. (Prince Harry doesn’t like the press.) But the story of him meeting and falling in love with Meghan Markle simply shines with love.

He finally got therapy. He stood up for himself and sued the press. And he withstood basically being cast out of the royal family.

The end says that a large portion of proceeds from this wildly best-selling book are going to charity, but I hope he keeps some for himself and his family, as the story also includes how the royal family is no longer paying for his security or any living expenses. And I would have rolled my eyes about that before I heard this story. The work of the royal family is public relations. And that includes raising money for charity. That he’s continuing that work he was born into, despite being cast off, is admirable.

I’m left after reading this book wholeheartedly wishing for him and his family health, happiness, and continued deep love for one another. And goodness, I hope the press will start leaving them alone.

This one’s worth a read, and like all audiobooks where the narrator has an English accent, it’s well worth hearing with Harry’s own voice reading it to you.

archewell.com

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Review of The Light We Carry, by Michelle Obama

Biography, Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Light We Carry

Overcoming in Uncertain Times

by Michelle Obama

Crown, 2022. 318 pages.
Review written January 16, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

Michelle Obama is a treasure. This book doesn’t contain profound new insights, but it does contain words and stories to inspire you to be your best, and to see the best in other people. She doesn’t pretend any of this is easy, but she tells stories about persevering when things are difficult.

I like the title, because Michelle Obama is exceptionally good at seeing the light in everyone. Everyone carries light inside them, and she is good at finding it in others. This is reflected in this paragraph talking about her book tour for Becoming:

When I looked out into those audiences, I saw something that confirmed what I knew to be true about my country and about the world more generally. I saw a colorful crowd, full of differences, and better for it. These were spaces where diversity was recognized and celebrated as a strength. I saw different ages, races, genders, ethnicities, identities, outfits, you name it — people laughing, clapping, crying, sharing. I sincerely believe that many of those people had turned up for reasons that stretched well past me or my book. My feeling was they’d shown up at least in part to feel less alone in the world, to locate some lost sense of belonging. Their presence — the energy, warmth, and diversity of those spaces — helped tell a certain story. People were there, I believe, because it felt good — it felt great, actually — to mix our differentness with togetherness.

She talks about living life in relationship with others — friends and family you let into your life. And there may not be anything earth-shaking there, but it is inspirational.

Here’s another paragraph I liked:

All I can do is try to draw closer to your uniqueness, to feel linked by the small overlaps between us. This is how empathy works. It’s how differentness starts to weave itself into togetherness. Empathy fills the gaps between us, but never closes them entirely. We get pulled into the lives of others by virtue of what they feel safe and able to show us, and the generosity with which we are able to meet them. Piece by piece, person by person, we begin to apprehend the world in more fullness.

It’s worth the wait on the Holds list.

michelleobamabooks.com
crownpublishing.com

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Review of Repentance and Repair, by Danya Ruttenberg

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

On Repentance and Repair

Making Amends in an Unapologetic World

by Danya Ruttenberg

Beacon Press, 2022. 243 pages.
Review written January 24, 2023, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

I follow Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on Twitter, and from there I subscribed to her substack, Life Is a Sacred Text. In those posts, she goes through the Torah — now she’s in Leviticus — and talks about what it means, what it meant, and all kinds of historical thinking about the text. It’s all wonderful and fascinating, and when I heard about this book, I preordered it right away. (It still took me some time to actually read it, but I was in the middle of award committee reading, so it was extra challenging.)

This book is all about addressing harm that you’ve done and making it right. Here’s how she puts it in the introduction:

There is a model for meaningfully addressing harm — from the daily intimate sorts of harm that manifest in personal relationships to larger wrongs perpetrated at the level of a community or culture, right up to genocide.

Of course, not every atrocity can be magically fixed, as though it never happened. But in the Jewish tradition — rooted, specifically, in the work of the twelfth-century philosopher Maimonides — there is a robust and sophisticated system that can help us grapple with everything from embarrassing missteps to horrific evils and do the work in our power to repair and transform. And, I believe, it can be useful for all of us — regardless of backgrround, culture, religion or lack thereof — here, now, today.

The book goes through this system and shows how it can look when applied to wrongs to individuals up to communities, cultures, and nations. She’s right that the system is robust and widely applicable.

I’ve thought a lot about forgiveness in the past. The most helpful book for me about forgiveness was Forgive for Good, by Dr. Fred Luskin. This book looks at the flip side of that. What if you are the one who harmed someone else? And along with that, Rabbi Ruttenberg shows that forgiving too soon may keep someone from doing the necessary work of repentance.

Maimonides’ approach is victim-oriented work. It’s not just to ease the conscience of the perpetrator but to actually repair some of the harm done.

According to Maimonides, a person doesn’t just get to mess up, mumble, “Sorry,” and get on with it. They’re not entitled to forgiveness if they haven’t done the work of repair. (And they’re not necessarily entitled to forgiveness even if they have.) Another human being’s suffering is not magically erased because the person who caused it says that they didn’t mean to do it. This is true in our personal lives, and it’s also true of politicians caught saying racist things, celebrities named as sexual abusers, human resources departments that cover up employee complaints, and governments perpetrating harm against individuals or groups. Fixing damage involves taking specific steps; there’s a process. We can’t ever undo what happened, but we can transform the situation and ourselves.

But you can’t cut corners.

In brief, Maimonides steps are:

  1. Naming and Owning Harm
  2. Starting to Change
  3. Restitution and Accepting Consequences
  4. Apology
  5. Making Different Choices

Please, pick up this book to learn about all the nuances of these steps and of this work. The steps sound simple, and fundamentally they are, but actually doing them can be extremely difficult.

But doing the work is rewarding! Here’s how Rabbi Ruttenberg puts it at the end of the first chapter explaining the steps:

We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused. Repentance — tshuvah — is like the Japanese art of kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with gold. You can never unbreak what you have broken. But with the sincere and deep work of transformation, acts of repair have the potential to make something new.

Who is this book for? Here’s what Rabbi Ruttenberg says, and I heartily agree:

This book is for everybody. It is based on Jewish thought, but I am very intentionally, applying these concepts to secular life and relationships. It’s for Jews and non-Jews; for atheists, agnostics, and theists; for secular people, spiritual people, religious people, and for everybody in between. We’ve all caused harm, we’ve all been harmed, we’ve all witnessed harm. We are all always growing in our messy, imperfect attempts to do right, to clean up, to repair, to make sense of what’s happened, and to figure out where to go from here. This is, I hope, a way in to the work.

I wish this book weren’t so applicable in life. I wish I never saw harm done or did any myself. But the fact is, I can’t imagine anyone who couldn’t get important insights out of this book.

Life Is a Sacred Text
beacon.org

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Review of Freedom to Flourish, by Elizabeth Garn

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 1

Freedom to Flourish

The Rest God Offers in the Purpose He Gives You

by Elizabeth Garn

P & R Publishing, 2021. 187 pages.
Review written February 28, 2023, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

Disclaimer first: I met the author of this book at a writers’ group meeting, and we quickly hit it off. We had lunch and I heard about this book and loved the concept, so, yes, I was predisposed to enjoy it.

And yes, I did enjoy it tremendously. I’m co-leading a ladies’ small group, and I’m going to suggest this book as our next choice for a study guide.

This book looks at the creation account and talks about God’s calling for women.

And “Freedom to Flourish” is a perfect description of that calling. Elizabeth Garn looks into the actual words used in Genesis in their context and shows us that God’s calling for women is much more than making babies.

She looks at what it means to be made in God’s image – both male and female – and what it means to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth as image bearers of God.

Art, music, hospitality, gardening, cooking, writing, storytelling, mathematics, programming . . . creating of any kind imitates God! You fill the earth by doing anything that adds beauty and life and fullness to the world around you, whether you prepare a simple meal, start a business, or create a work of art. The job of an image bearer is to use your gifts to mimic the passionate, creative work of God.

Oh, and her explanation of what it means to be an ezer (“helper”) is just plain empowering. And she points out that Eve was made for that outside the context of marriage and before the two were married. All women can be mighty helpers and defenders of humanity and all creation, not simply married ones. It’s not a subordinate role, and is even used in other places to describe God.

I also love the way she shook up my concept of Adam and Eve cast out of the garden in shame, dressed in some kind of wooly loincloths. She points out that the same word used to describe the priestly garments worn by Aaron and his descendants is used about the garments God gave Adam and Eve. They still bore God’s image and were sent out, not in shame, but with a calling.

Please, read the book to understand the scholarship and insights that the author uses to bring us to this place. But let me quote from a concluding paragraph so you know where she ends up:

God loves us! Not because of anything we do but because of who he is. And he has created us with freedom to live lives that display him in stunning ways. Far from the exhaustion and the striving, he has set us free to be women of God: image bearers of the King. It’s an extravagant calling! His plan for us is bigger and better than I ever dared to imagine. I want to stand on the rooftops and scream that we matter! That our hearts matter. Our minds matter. our passions and gifts and graces matter! The women he has made us to be matter. And all of that matters because we are his image bearers.

The view presented in this book has a liberating and expansive view of our calling as humans. And it’s strongly rooted in Scripture, pointing out insights I hadn’t noticed from the original language of these familiar passages.

prpbooks.com

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Review of The Catch Me If You Can, by Jessica Nabongo

Adventure, Nonfiction Review, Photography, Starred Review, Travel, True Stories 0

The Catch Me If You Can

One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World

by Jessica Nabongo

National Geographic, 2022. 413 pages.
Review written February 11, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book is awesome!

Jessica Nabongo has traveled to all 195 United Nations-recognized countries in the world. In this book, she takes us along on that journey, complete with stunning photographs. She tells us about the people she met and the experiences she enjoyed.

Jessica is the first Black woman to officially achieve this milestone. I love her attitude of putting aside fear and looking for the good in every place in the world.

And oh my goodness, her outfits! She shows up in many of the pictures, wearing stunning outfits reflecting the location. The photography alone in this book makes it amazing, but combined with her stories, I was fascinated from start to finish.

My plan was to read about one country per day. Well, that was taking a long time, so I upped it to two or three countries per day. And yes, I renewed the book several times. But the dose of adventure and delight became a nice part of my routine.

Jessica’s Introduction is inspiring. Here are two of the lessons she learned:

I have visited the world’s 195 countries and 10 territories. Through these travels I learned two key lessons: First, most people are good. My journey was made possible by the kindness of strangers — some who opened their homes to me and others who donated money to help me reach the finish line. I do not know when we started to assume the worst in each other, but if you consider yourself to be a good person, why would you assume that a stranger is a bad one? I always assume the best of people because that is what I received nine times out of 10 in every corner of the world. The few bad experiences will never outweigh the good.

The second lesson I learned is that we are more similar than we are different. In the end, neither race, gender, social class, religion, sexual orientation, body type, education level, nor nationality make you better than the next person. The French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Once you fully accept that, you realize how much our differences simply do not matter.

I love her goal for the reader:

The intention of this book is not to convince you to travel to every country in the world, though it might. That was my dream. My intention is to show everyone — not just Black women and men, but all women and men — that your dreams are valid. Your dreams are achievable.

Let me encourage you to travel the world with Jessica Nabongo!

thecatchmeifyoucan.com
natgeo.com

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Review of Carotid and Vertebral Artery Dissection, by Jodi A. Dodds and Amanda P. Anderson

Health, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Carotid and Vertebral Artery Dissection

A Guide for Survivors and Their Loved Ones

by Jodi A. Dodds, MD
and Amanda P. Anderson, MS, CCC-SLP

Printed in Monee, IL, January 11, 2022. 261 pages.
Review written February 1, 2022, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 General Nonfiction

I can’t even tell you how happy I am that this book exists.

Ten years ago, at 47 years old, I had a cerebellar stroke caused by a vertebral artery dissection. I was in pain with a horrible headache centered in my neck from the vertebral artery dissection more than a month before I had the stroke, but no doctor even thought to check for a dissected artery. Then I had an initial stroke, with sudden room-spinning vertigo — and the Emergency Room did a CT scan, which didn’t catch it, and sent me home, saying the dizziness meant my migraines had changed.

I had a second stroke three days later. That one they did catch, and I was in the hospital for ten days. It wasn’t until two days after my stroke that they thought to check for vertebral artery dissection.

I was sent home from the hospital on coumadin for six months, but they told me I didn’t need physical or occupational therapy and no major deficits. I didn’t understand all the minor deficits that would follow. And when I tried to find out information about recovering from vertebral dissections or cerebellar strokes, I only found information about major disabilities.

What’s more, when my neck pain continued, in the exact place where the vertebral artery dissection happened, my neurologist (ludicrously) started looking for arthritis in my neck! Later, after I’d aggravated the injury lifting too much weight, a neurology intern told me that arteries don’t hurt!

So reading this book ten years after the fact, I feel validated. I had learned on the internet that CT scans only catch 20% of cerebellar strokes when they’re happening. This book told me that CT scans only catch 35% of any kind of ischemic stroke while they are happening, and should never be used to rule out ischemic stroke. (They are good at catching hemorrhagic stroke, so still a good test to run.) I still can’t believe the doctors sent me home when I had that first stroke.

Also, pain for months and years after a vertebral artery dissection is just plain common. I know what that pain feels like — it was intense for the month before the stroke. So when it shows up again, I’m sure I aggravated the old injury, and this book confirms that may well be what’s happening. It also made me less afraid that pain there means a drastic reinjury — they emphasized that your scans can look normal, and yet you may still have pain long after the dissection happened.

I’ve also had dizziness since the stroke, and many vestibular migraines (similar to headache migraines, but with dizziness). This is common for vertebral artery dissection patients even if the injury was discovered before they had a stroke, though I’m sure the deficit in my cerebellum doesn’t help.

In summary, this book didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t figured out from my own experience, but it was oh, so validating! And I very, very much hope some doctors will find it. I’m posting this review in hopes of one more way cervical artery dissection survivors might find this information. I recommend that anyone in that situation purchase this book. You’ll find a wealth of information that will help you understand what you’ve experienced.

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Review of Open and Unafraid, by W. David O. Taylor

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Open and Unafraid

The Psalms as a Guide to Life

by W. David O. Taylor

Nelson Books (Thomas Nelson), 2020. 230 pages.
Review written December 15, 2022, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I’ll be honest, the reason I ordered this book was that I was looking for competitive titles to go with my own book that I’ve written about Psalms. And I was delighted with this one. I do believe that the two can go together, more complementary than competitive. They have different approaches, but someone who enjoys one book will also enjoy the other, because both books are focused on that amazing book in the center of the Bible, a book that engages your emotions and gives examples of people bringing their lives before God.

In the Introduction, the author tells us his hopes for the book:

I’ve written this book so readers would become excited to embrace a prayer book that has been deeply influential, not just for Jesus and the apostles and for monastic and cathedral practices of prayer but also for the hymns of the Reformation, the spirituals of African American slaves, and the songs of the global church. My hope is that church leaders and laypersons, and even seekers and “nones” (those claiming no religion), would understand that they are never alone in their sorrows, angers, doubts, joys, thanksgivings, or questions about life and death.

I love the title of the book, because it reflects the psalmists’ stance before God — Open and unafraid. The psalms are amazing in their honesty and the openness of their emotions before God. In fact, as David Taylor approaches the Psalms by looking at many different themes, he begins with the theme of “Honesty.”

What the psalms offer us is a powerful aid to un-hide: to stand honestly before God without fear, to face one another vulnerably without shame, and to encounter life in the world without any of the secrets that would demean and distort our humanity. The psalms, then, are for those who know that they spend much of their life hiding secrets; they are also for those who know that standing in the presence of God “is the one place where such secrets cannot and must not be hidden.”

The other themes the author takes up to look at the Book of Psalms are Community, History, Prayer, Poetry, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Enemies, Justice, Death, Life, Nations, and Creation. Every chapter includes Questions for Reflection and Exercises, all of which run deep, so this book would be wonderful material for a small group to work through together.

The psalms invite us to risk the love of God and neighbor and of the world that surrounds us with the reassurance that we do not venture this risk alone. We venture it together with an extraordinary company of fellow pilgrims across the ages.

Dive into the psalms with this book. Like the author, I hope it will encourage you to spend time reading the Book of Psalms again and again as you come to understand why they have been beloved by God’s people for thousands of years.

thomasnelson.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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